StarCrossed
by Wuthelm
Summary: It was the one scenario she never thought about and it changed her game forever. Disclaimer: This is a retelling/expansion of destydreams "Love of the Game" and published with her permission.


With catlike dexterity her fingers flew over the gamepad, and as the various pieces fell down to build one impenetrable wall, her mind already guided the next ones. Like a chess-player she had all possible moves planned out in advance, and had gone through all the possible scenarios, over and over again. One more piece and she would have broken the ultimate high score, just one last piece … now with a little bit of luck … yes! A feint smile appeared on her face as the squiggly piece was announced in the upper right corner of the screen. After all this hard work, after all this effort, after all those long sleepless nights, now finally her time had come. At this point, nothing could go wrong anymore and everything would be perfect. But then it happened; it was the one variable she didn't thought about … couldn't have thought about, or perhaps didn't dare to think about?

Something was wrong, although she didn't really know what it was. A weird feeling she couldn't quite grasp, like a dark shadow in the corner of her eyes. Then, after what seemed like an eternity, she realized, that there was something about this piece; something different, something … special.

At first it seemed just like any other dark-green squiggly-shaped piece, but yet it was unlike any

squiggly she had ever seen before, and in her heart she couldn't find any words to describe him. His

angelic beauty was perfect and untarnished. As her heart began pounding she could feel the blood

rushing through her veins and without noticing, the gamepad dropped from her hands, as she fell down to her knees in front of the TV.

All she wanted to do, all that really mattered at this point, was to touch him, to feel him. But she

couldn't. And as much as she tried to hold him, he continued to elude her. Slowly, oh so slowly, he

continued to slide down, ignoring her all the way. No, not ignoring, mocking. He mocked her; now she could hear him laughing; laughing at her, as he went down and down to rejoin with his friends, further away from her. How could he do that to her? How could he be so cruel?

In but a mere moments he'd be gone forever. There was no time! She had to do something about it!

She simply had to. Now! She desperately tried to get a hold of him, but again to no avail. Ah, such a

hopeless situation. Soon she would have lost him forever.

But although she envied his friends and was angry with him for his behavior, deep inside some part of her already knew, that it wasn't his fault. Their star-crossed love never really had a chance, and just like Romeo & Juliet, their fate was sealed before they even met. There simply was no other outcome. Oh, what a gruesome lot.

Shortly before he arrived at his place in the wall, the place he was destined to be, she closed her eyes. She knew all to well what was going to happen now. After all, she witnessed this exact same situation a million times before, knew every second of the process, and yet this time she couldn't bare to watch. It was to sad, to painful, to horrible. No, she simply wasn't able to watch; watch how he would merge with his friends; how he would become one with them; how they would erase each other in perfect symmetry.

All that was left now, all she could do, was pressing her hands on the screen and giving him this last

passionate kiss, that seems to last forever. And as she did so, one lonely tear escaped her eyes and

rolled down her cheek, where it dropped of and fell onto the gamepad, lying between her legs..

She didn't knew how much time had passed before she opened her eyes again. Minutes, hours,

days... she didn't care, because it didn't really mattered; nothing did, not anymore. There was nothing left of her love, as if he never existed. Could this all have been but a bad dream? But alas, this last tiny spark of hope got extinguished by big colorful letters on the screen, reading:

NEW HIGHSCORE

So it really did happen. Oh, how she had longed for this moment. How many times had she heard the trumpets of victory in her dreams; How many times had she seen the fireworks and lived through this moment of perfect bliss. And now she finally had made it, but at what price? She didn't feel like a winner, how could she? No, all she felt was a deep emptiness. The same emptiness she could see on the screen; the same emptiness he forever left into.

It was a long time that she simply sat there, without moving, thinking about what had happened.. Not long ago everything seemed so easy, she was at the top of her game, king of the hill. But that was in another life. Now nothing would ever be the same.

If she simply turned the console off, without saving the high score, perhaps then, one day, she would be able to forget him. But then his death would have bee meaningless, his legacy lost forever. No, she couldn't do that to him.

Finally she decided to save the high score and reluctantly turned off the console. It still was a long

time before she was able to stand up and leave the room. She never came back …


End file.
